You couldn’t make it up, Jessie J states. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with characteristic openness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She shoots me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
She was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the start of the week. By then she had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I log in believing it’s all going to be positive, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your test results have shown malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but then I just strolled down with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. The surgery happened four months ago and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the West End in the production (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band the group while enrolled in the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a collision and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”
Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
